Goldilocks and the 18

CONGRATS to the U.S. WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM!!! They've successfully taken the gold medal! Brazil wasn't an easy team to play against, and it was just about the most defensive game I've seen all year.

Here's my story:
Now...I'd told my boyfriend, everyone at work, our roomate...as many people as I could FIND not to tell me how the game went because I had it TiVO'd at home.

I sit and watch the WHOLE GAME. Not too exciting...though there were some great saves, especially by our goalie Hope Solo.

Pass the first half: 0-0

Into the second half: 0-0

Elbows, knees, bodies flying EVERYWHERE! Best thing: hardly any fouls unless they were absolutely necessarily called. I LOVE ROUGH SOCCER!

87th minute: phone call from my mother.

"Hello mother, what's up?"

Before I get a chance to say anything, especially don't tell me about the game, "Congrats! Your girls did it! Took home the GOLD!"

"DAMN IT!"

So...we sit and watch the rest of the game, which by this time, crunch time, was WAY entertaining.

Carli Lloyd...MAGNIFICANT GOAL...boosh. End of game. And, despite knowing they won, I still jumped up and down, woke up the boyfriend, and probably pissed off the neighbors below us. And, it was the United States official 1,000th gold medal. How cool is that?

My ladies did it! The odds were slightly stacked against them but it was FANTASTIC to watch them drive through everyone and beat them all to the finish line.

Can't wait to see them in more games this September! GO U.S.A.!!!!!

O-lay, o-lay o-lay o-lay...

That's right, you know what's coming up? It's time for the Women's National Team to walk away with an Olympic medal!! Be it gold or silver, it's a HUGE testament as to how well these ladies have done!

From getting a 2-0 wake-up call by Norway in the first game, coming back 4-0 against New Zealand, 1-0 against Canada, and finally clinching the final match against Brazil by beating Japan 4-2, it's off to the finals we merrily skip!

Brazil is a tough team, and though we'll be playing minus Lesli Osborne, Kat Whitehill, and Abby Wambach, this team has just persevered through every trial thrown at them and come out of it on top.

Good luck on Thursday ladies! GO U.S.A.!

As a side note, and there are probably fans out there of this sport (none that read my blog), I watched an Olympic event a couple of days ago that was...strange to me. Border-line ridiculous. 20k Walk.

Now...don't get me wrong, I know that it'd be tough to maintain a fast walking pace for 20k, but come on now. We made an event out of something that defines a pedestrian?! Is there really Olympic Power-Walking?! Get outta here! Grats to Russia for clinching the prestige title of Gold Medal Winner for the 20k Men's Race-walk.

That, to me, is a bit of a silly sport. And yes, being the hypocrite that I am I watched the whole damn thing. 1 hour, 18 minutes of race-walk.

Go U.S.A., no matter what silly gold we're going for! (But especially our soccer stars!)

-Erin